Category Archives: UK news

Coronavirus live: two members of India G7 team test positive; Tokyo Olympics ‘to go ahead’ after test event

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Delegation self-isolating after members test positive for Covid; Seb Coe says Games in July will be ‘extremely good’ even without spectators

Staff at an Indonesian pharmaceutical company have been accused of washing and repackaging used Covid nasal swabs, which were then sold to thousands of unsuspecting travellers.

Five employees from the state-owned Kimia Farma have been arrested, while the company may also face a civil lawsuit over the claims.

Related: Workers at Indonesian pharma firm arrested over ‘re-used’ Covid swabs

Norway will introduce verifiable vaccine certificates from early June, allowing holders to use them for admittance to events held in Norway, prime minister Erna Solberg has said.

About a quarter of Norway’s population, as Reuters reports, has received a first dose of a Covid vaccine, while 6.8% has received two doses.

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Ministers urged to reveal details of £2bn Covid deals with private health firms

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Contracts to increase capacity handed to 17 companies, some of whom had donated to Conservatives

The government has been urged to publish details of up to £2bn in Covid-19 contracts awarded to private healthcare companies, including some that have helped fund the Conservative party.

Contracts to provide extra capacity during the pandemic have been handed to 17 firms since March 2020.

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Jersey hits back at ‘disproportionate’ French threat to cut electricity

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Paris threatens to take retaliatory measures in row over post-Brexit licences for French fishing boats

Jersey has accused France of making “disproportionate” threats after Paris warned it could cut off electricity to the island in a row over post-Brexit fishing rights.

The maritime minister, Annick Girardin, warned on Tuesday France was ready to take “retaliatory measures” after accusing the Channel Island of dragging its feet over issuing new licences to French boats.

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Tory quarrels determined UK’s post-Brexit future, says Barnier

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Revealed: EU chief negotiator’s diaries, The Great Illusion, give blow-by-blow account of moves behind UK’s departure

Britain’s post-Brexit future was determined by “the quarrels, low blows, multiple betrayals and thwarted ambitions of a certain number of Tory MPs”, the EU’s chief negotiator has said in his long-awaited diaries.

The UK’s early problem, writes Michel Barnier in The Great Illusion, his 500-page account, was that they began by “talking to themselves. And they underestimate the legal complexity of this divorce, and many of its consequences.”

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More trafficking victims facing forcible removal from UK under rule change

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Rights groups warn many more survivors face being locked up after MPs back Home Office change

More victims of trafficking will be locked up in detention and forcibly removed from the UK after MPs approved a change in Home Office rules relating to this vulnerable group, campaigners have warned.

MPs recently confirmed what is known as a statutory instrument. This change in rules relating to the detention of trafficking victims comes into force on 25 May and will require them to provide a higher standard of proof that they should not be detained.

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Trial of ex-soldiers over 1972 killing of Official IRA member collapses

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Two army veterans acquitted of Joe McCann’s murder after judge ruled some evidence inadmissible

Two former British army paratroopers accused of murdering an Official IRA commander during the Troubles have been acquitted after their trial in Northern Ireland collapsed.

The two veterans, known as soldiers A and C, had been accused of murdering Joe McCann on 15 April 1972, in a closely watched trial with political ramifications.

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Dalian Atkinson’s head was kicked like a football by police officer, murder trial told

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PC Benjamin Monk also alleged to have used Taser weapon on former Aston Villa player for six times longer than guideline limit

A police officer murdered the former Aston Villa striker Dalian Atkinson, first shooting him with a Taser stun gun for 33 seconds, then kicking him in the head as though striking a football, causing his head to snap back violently, a jury heard on Tuesday.

PC Benjamin Monk denies murder and manslaughter following the incident on 15 August 2016 in Telford, Shropshire, which began at the home of Atkinson’s father.

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France threatens to cut off power to Jersey in post-Brexit fishing row

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French minister raises electricity supply as point of leverage in dispute over access to UK waters

The French government could cut off the electricity supply to Jersey in an escalating row over post-Brexit fishing rights, a French minister has suggested.

Responding to questions in the national assembly, Annick Girardin, the minister for maritime affairs, said she was “revolted” by the UK government’s behaviour over its waters and France was ready to retaliate.

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As UK nears zero Covid deaths, there’s good reason for optimism

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Analysis: the vaccine strategy and staggered easing of restrictions have worked well. The next step is crucial

The handling of the coronavirus crisis in the UK has provided few moments to celebrate, but the day we reach zero deaths from the disease will clearly be one to toast. That day may not be far off. On Tuesday, the UK reported four Covid deaths within 28 days of a positive test. On Monday it was only one. Months of painful lockdown, in the face of more transmissible variants, and the rapid rollout of effective vaccines, have proven their worth. We have good reason to feel optimistic for the months ahead.

No one will have forgotten the brutal winter. In January alone, the UK reported nearly 32,000 Covid deaths, an appalling tally directly linked to locking down too late. In April, the death toll fell to 753. This month, scientists advising the government expect deaths to fall further. It is worth remembering that it’s been more than nine months since the UK last reported zero Covid deaths. We may see more in May, though people will continue to die of Covid, and the numbers might well rise again when restrictions are lifted on indoor mixing.

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Child marriage ‘thriving in UK’ due to legal loophole, warn rights groups

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In a letter to the PM campaigners say forced marriage law fails to protect young people

A legal loophole that allows 16- and 17-year-olds in England and Wales to marry with parental consent is being exploited and used to coerce young people into child marriage, campaigners have warned.

More than 20 organisations have signed a letter to the prime minister insisting current forced marriage law does not go far enough in protecting young people.

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‘Like living in a horror film’: UK doctors raise Covid funds for India

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Concerned British doctors of Asian heritage says India’s Covid crisis needs a strong global response

The streets of Delhi are known for their noise, crowds, and bustle, but Meenal Vis, a UK doctor, says that when her family there listen out of their windows there is “pin-drop silence”.

“It is almost like living in a horror film. People are not sure what will come next,” she said. “The kind of feeling described is a country in a war.”

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Sadiq Khan pledges to explore new London Olympic bid if re-elected

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Mayor will say city could look at bidding for 2036 or 2040 Games as post-Covid morale boost for nation

Sadiq Khan is pledging to look at bringing the Olympics back to London within 20 years if he is re-elected as mayor on Thursday.

In a speech at an amateur boxing club in Earlsfield, south-west London, on Tuesday, Khan will set out the prospect of another London Olympics as a post-Covid morale boost that he argues would extend beyond the capital.

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UK likely to give green light for travel to fewer than 10 EU countries

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Traffic light system to be used cautiously despite European plan to let in Covid-vaccinated tourists from June

Britons’ summer holiday plans were given a major boost on Monday, as the EU confirmed vaccinated travellers will be able to fly to Europe from June, though it’s understood the UK could give the green light to travel to fewer than 10 countries.

The changing quarantine requirements for popular holiday destinations looks set to make 2021 the year of the last-minute booking.

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‘It’s terrifying’: parents’ struggle to get help for children with long Covid

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Lack of research into area means children are being sent away from A&E and parents told they are overanxious

On Christmas Day, Gail Jackson’s 16-year-old daughter said she was in so much pain she thought she would die. Liliana had been briefly admitted to hospital with Covid in September. Her symptoms never went away and, as time went on, new ones had emerged.

“For months she had a relentless, agonising headache, nausea, tinnitus, fatigue and insomnia, but the worst thing was the agonising nerve pain,” said Jackson. “I couldn’t even touch her without her screaming in pain.”

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UK dairy firms try to count the cost of churn in post-Brexit trade

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Country Milk’s trade with the EU has nosedived with the dairy industry particularly badly affected by new customs rules

A small error in the paperwork – a box ticked by mistake – and the tanker of butter oil was held at French customs for five days, with veterinary authorities at the border threatening to destroy it. The debacle nearly cost the tanker’s exporter, dairy company County Milk, a six-figure sum. After fraught negotiations, the cargo was eventually repatriated.

“You don’t need too many of those to be destroyed and you are in dire straits,” says Phil Langslow, trading director at County Milk, the UK’s largest privately owned dairy ingredients business.

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‘Real thuggery’: Cornwall boats vandalised amid ‘incomer’ tensions

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Some blame new residents and second-home owners not keen on sight and sounds of ‘local’ vessels

The spot could hardly be more idyllic. A Cornish creek fringed by apple trees where boats bob at high tide and dogs and children frolic in the mud at low.

But there is trouble in the parish of Feock after a string of acts of vandalism aimed at those bobbing boats led to a wave of anger, fear and suspicion.

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‘I’m bursting with fiction’: Alan Moore announces five-volume fantasy epic

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Exclusive: Watchmen and V for Vendetta writer lands six-figure deal for fantasy quintet Long London and short story collection

Two years after announcing that he had retired from comics, Alan Moore, the illustrious author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, has signed a six-figure deal for a “groundbreaking” five-volume fantasy series as well as a “momentous” collection of short stories.

Bloomsbury, home to the Harry Potter novels, acquired what it described as two “major” projects from the 67-year-old. The first, Illuminations, is a short story collection which will be published in autumn 2022 and which moves from the four horsemen of the apocalypse to the “Boltzmann brains” fashioning the universe. Bloomsbury said it was “dazzlingly original and brimming with energy”, promising a series of “beguiling and elegantly crafted tales that reveal the full power of imagination and magic”.

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British man who died in crush at Israeli festival is named as Moshe Bergman

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Bergman, 24, had been in Israel to train as a rabbi before dying at Mount Meron

A British man who died in a crowd crush at a Jewish festival in Israel has been named as Moshe Bergman.

The 24-year-old from Salford, Manchester, had been in the country to train to be a rabbi in Jerusalem. He had been living in the city for two years and had married 18 months ago.

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Senior Tory says Boris Johnson should resign if he breached ministerial rules

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Leader of Scottish Conservatives says PM should ‘of course’ quit if he has not been honest about payments for Downing Street refurb

One of the UK’s most senior Conservatives has broken ranks and called for Boris Johnson to resign if he breached ministerial rules over the refurbishment of a Downing Street flat, amid new claims that undeclared donations have been sought to fund the prime minister’s lavish lifestyle.

Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said on Sunday that Johnson should “of course” quit if he is found to have breached the code by failing to be honest about cash payments from a Conservative donor sought to redecorate his official residence.

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‘Complex identities’ of Northern Ireland being undermined, says ex-official

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Ciaran Martin criticises post-Brexit attempts to ‘redesign’ UK based on old notion of English sovereignty

The United Kingdom’s unity faces being destabilised by “flag-waving unionism” from English nationalist politicians, one of the most senior officials to emerge from Northern Ireland’s traditionally Catholic community has warned.

Ciaran Martin, who created the framework for Scotland’s 2014 independence poll as the Cabinet Office’s constitution director, said the “complex identities” of Northern Ireland faced being undermined by post-Brexit attempts to “redesign” the British state based on “a narrow 17th-century notion of English sovereignty”.

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